Durstlöscher - German Pilsner

This is my second time brewing a lager.  I made a munich helles last year, which came out ok - there was just something off about it.  Given the simplicity of the ingredients in these styles, I knew I needed to focus more on my water.  I scoured forums and decided that using 50% distilled water for my mash and adding just a little bit of minerals to achieve an estimated 5.4 pH would produce a better beer.  Additionally, my parents bought me a stirplate for my birthday, which allowed me to more efficiently propogate the yeast for this batch.

(Filling the Fermenter with as much trub-free wort as possible)

Durstlöscher - German Pilsner Brewed On: February 18, 2013
Kegged On: 4/6/2013
Style: 2A -German Pilsner
Batch Size: 6 gallons (5 gal into fermenter)
Efficiency: 83%
OG: 1.048
FG: 1.009
IBU: 36 calculated (Rager) 
ABV: 5.1%
Yeast: WLP830 German Lager from Starter ~400 billion cells .  Fermented at 50° 

Grist Mashed at 147 for 60 minutes
97% - Weyermann Pilsner - 9.5 lbs
3% - Acidulated Malt - 4.5 oz

Hop Additions (90 minute boil)
.55 oz - Magnum - 60 min - 30 IBUs
.50 oz - Hallertau - 20 min - 6 IBUs
.50 oz - Hallertau - 0 min

Water Adjustments
Mash - 4 gallons Montgomery County, MD Water consisting of 50% distilled with 
3 grams Gypsum
2 grams CaCL
Sparge - Montgomery County, MD Water (treated with campden tablet)

This lager pours a nice deep straw color with a frothy white head.  The aroma is a strong, crisp and clean smell of malt with some slight yeast character - touch of sulfur.  It has medium body with medium carbonation.  The beer really showcases the continental pilsner malt, and washing it over your tongue you can pick up a grainy sweetness.  The sweetness is really more "maltiness" which is a compliment to the extreme crispness and lack of esters left by the lager yeast.  The firm, but pleasant bitterness from the hallertau hops helps the beer finish dry.  A real thirst quencher perfect for spring!

I left this one in the fermenter a little longer than I would have liked due to my keg issues.  It could have a little more fresh hop character, but overall it is pretty tasty.  Being my second lager, I am greatly pleased with the outcome.  Two big differences between this lager and my first. 1) I used liquid yeast this time, and did a double step starter on my stir plate (used dry the first time) 2) I cut my mash water with 50% distilled water. After writing my tasting notes I decided to go to the BJCP guidelines and see how I was doing.  Pretty much falls right in line with the guidelines - I just entered this in two competitions, so hopefully my palate is tasting accurately!  

Kegging - The Not-So Awesome Side of Packaging

Browse the homebrew forums in their "Bottling/Kegging" section and you will notice a lot of reoccurring questions pop up.  Many of those questions revolve around a fairly new homebrewer asking questions about bottle carbonation.  A few people will respond with well constructed and helpful advise...then, there is always one wise guy who posts "Just keg and you don't have to worry about it!"  While that may be true, there are quite a few frustrations that can accompany the pleasantries of kegging.

We know the benefits of kegging our homebrew:

• Clean, Sanitize and fill just one container
• Fine tune your carbonation level
• Force carbonate your beer quickly (<24 hours if necessary)
• Draft homebrew is awesome and it allows you to sample less than 12 ounces at a time
• You cold condition and carbonate at the same time, producing a larger quantity of clear beer sooner.

Now let me explain some of my problems I have had while kegging:

(Velcro Picnic Tap)

• CO2 Leak:  I avoided this for over a year!  I decided to upgrade my dual body regulator with 2 wye splitters (allowing myself the ability to carbonate and serve 4 beers rather than 2) and I guess I didn't find the leaks...killed 2 tanks worth of CO₂.  Not a huge deal, but thats about $40 down the drain right there.  Solution: My problem was I didn't check for leaks at 30psi, I did it at 10psi.  Make sure to check for leaks at a higher pressure so they will be more visible. Use soapy water or star san for visibility.
• Unsecured Lines:  I started out with the plastic "Picnic Taps" to save some scratch until I could upgrade to perlick forward-seal faucets.  I learned the hard way that picnic lines lose flexibility the colder they become.  This led to my picnic tap falling and opening itself, making a huge mess! Solution: Secure your lines.  I purchased some velcrow tape and fastened it around my tap and secured it to the side of the fridge.

(Foamy Beer!)

• Overcarbed Beer:  Remember the benefit of quickly carbing beer from above?  Well what if you do to much too quickly?  While it is fixable, an overcarbed keg is a nuisance.  I recently had this happen while trying to force carb some beer for bottling for NHC 2013.  Solution:  Vent keg daily.  You can pull the keg out of your keggerator and leave it a room temp (higher temp = less CO₂ in solution which means you venting is more effective). 

• Equipment Maintenance:  You are always needing to replace O-rings, or other items.  I just recently had a HUGE SNAFU because I bent a poppet valve on one of my kegs.  After a trying a bunch of things, including purchasing a universal poppet which didn't seal fully (I need a long-legged poppet), I find out there are 3 different types of poppets for pin lock kegs (6 types overall?)!  Solution: First off, be very carefully tightening down your keg posts - I didn't notice the poppet pin was being obstructed by the post itself and ended up bending it AND the flange on my dip tube.  Second, make sure you know which type of kegs you have and have a backup plan - either spare kegs, poppets, o-rings or All three!  (just purchased bulk o-rings from Orings and More - highly recommend!)

(Different poppet types)

• Bottling:  Wait! I thought we are talking kegging, right?  Well yes, but even though you keg your beer  you will eventually have to bottle some of it for competitions or to give to your friends and family that can't make it to your tap.  Solution:  You can create a cheap bottle filler (execution here) or buy a Blichmann Beer gun.  Either way, you are now doing twice as much work as you originally were just bottling!

So beware!  Kegging comes with its own set of problems.  Spending hours trying to find leaks, or cleaning up gallons of beer from the garage floor may make that hour of bottling and 3 weeks waiting for carbonation to be achieved seem just a little better.  But at the end of the day, nothing beats pulling a pint from one of the 3 taps below!

(Shegogue Brew's 3 Perlick Taps)

Wrong Coast - IPA

Its been a while since I have brewed anything hoppy, almost a half a year to be exact.  My taste buds have been asking for the hops, and I finally decided to indulge them.  I have been reading up a lot about hoppy beers over at fellow blogger Scott's site: Bertus Brewery.  Scott has some of the best info out there on how to make a great IPA and I used that info to formulate the recipe below.

The grain bill is based on principals made popular for pale ales by Firestone Walker Brewmaster Matt Brynildson.  Mostly 2-row or pale ale malt with some munich and carapils.  This will provide a solid canvas which I then showered with hops - close to 10 ounces for a 5-6gal batch.  My wife bought me 3lbs of hops for my birthday - 1lb each of Simcoe, Cascade, and Citra.  I decided to hop this beer with a classic IPA combo, Simcoe and Cascade.

(Hops for Wrong Coast IPA)

Living on the East coast, my first IPA experience was Dogfish Head 60 minute IPA - great beer.  Since homebrewing and becoming a more educated craft beer consumer, I have come to enjoy the hop blasting lupulin bombs from the west coast.  This beer is more to that style, but from an east coast brewer.  I therefore have deemed this beer "Wrong Coast" and adulterated the U.S. Map in the logo.

Brewed On: January 26, 2013 (My birthday and 3 year brewing anniversary)
Kegged On: February 18, 2013
Style: 14B -American IPA
Batch Size: 6 gallons (5 gal into fermenter)
Efficiency: 75%
OG: 1.066
FG: 1.012
IBU: 63 calculated (Rager) 
ABV: 7%
Yeast: Safale S-05 American Ale Yeast Slurry from Porter.  Fermented at 62° for 3 days then rise and held at 67°


Grist Mashed at 151 for 70 minutes
80% - Great Western Pale Ale Malt - 11.5 lbs
15% - Briess Munich - 2 lbs
5%  - Briess Carapils - 12 oz

Hop Additions
.7 oz - Magnum - 60 min - 38 IBUs
1 oz - Cascade - 20 min - 8 IBUs
1 oz - Simcoe - 20 min -17 IBUs
1.5 oz - Cascade - 0 min 
1.5 oz - Simcoe - 0 min
Dry Hop Addtions, equal parts Simcoe and Cascade
1st Addition - 2 oz - 8 days
2nd Addition - 2 oz - 4 days (added to primary 4 days after 1st addition)

Water Adjustments
Montgomery County, MD Water - 1/2 Campden Tablet for all brewing water
12 grams gypsum to mash water
2 oz acid malt

Tasting Notes

The beer has a nice white head and a grainy gold color, which due to some kegging issues is still fairly hazy - shows nice lacing.  It smells of sweet citrus and grapefruit and overall fruity dominance backed up by subtle maltiness from the munich. It currently has medium-to-low carbonation (keg issues) which contributes a creamy mouthfeel that finishes slightly bitter and dry with a slight alcohol warmth at the end. Fresh american hop character sounds its trumpet throughout.  Delicious :)

The only real knock on this bitter is that I don't think the bitterness is bold enough.  In the future I will increase the bittering charge, or lower the total malt a bit to decrease the alcohol, which should enhance the bitterness.

Printing Press Porter

After I created my 2012-2013 brew calendar, I went out to my LHBS and purchased ingredients for my next 3 beers.  The third was to be this porter which I planned to brew in December.  My homebrew store had received their chocolate and black patent malts pre-crushed.  I didn't think about it at the time of purchase, but when it came time to brew this beer, I just didn't want to risk using the pre-crushed dark malts from 3 months ago (I failed to store them properly).  This meant I had to get new chocolate and black patent malt for brewday...

Brewday was scheduled for Saturday December 22, 2012.  This was my first day of vacation for the holidays (had use or lose time by the end of the year).  The day before I decided to take the metro and walk to the DC Homebrew Store located at 3 Stars in D.C. on my way home from work.  A quick check of google maps, and I figured I would be able to hit the brew store, and only increase my commute by a 45 minutes...well it ended up being a good 25 minute walk from the nearest metro station each way.  In addition, when I got to the train station to catch the MARC commuter train, the schedules had been rearranged for the holidays and I had to wait an extra 30 minutes for the next train.  In addition to the time, the weather was not in my favor as it was low 30s and snow flurrying - if you don't consider that dedication to brewing with fresh and quality ingredients, then I don't know what you would.

On the aforementioned MARC commuter train I spend my time reading.  Recently, I was reading the autobiography of Benjamin Franklin and in a passage he described how at the Printing house he worked at, all the other workers would be drink beer all day - before, during, and after every meal.  Around the early 1700s I would assume the ale they were drinking were similar to a porter style, and have therefore deemed this beer, a modern interpretation of the style, Printing Press Porter.

Printing Press Porter

Brewed On: December 22, 2012
Kegged On: January 12, 2013
Style: 12B - Robust Porter
Batch Size: 6 gallons (5 gal into fermenter)
Efficiency: 75%
OG: 1.061
FG: 1.016

IBU: 41 calculated (Rager) 
ABV: 5.9%
Yeast: Safale S-05 American Ale Yeast (Re-hydrated) Fermented at 62° for 4 days then rise to 67°

Grist Mashed at 154 for an hour
84% - Maris Otter (Muntons) - 11.5 lbs
7%  - Crystal 40 - 1 lb
5%  - Chocolate - 12 oz
4%  - Black malt - 8 oz

Hop Additions 
0.67 oz - Columbus 14.6% AAU - 60 minutes - 37 IBUs
1.00 oz  - EKG 5.8% AAU - 5 minutes - 4 IBUs

Water Adjustments
Montgomery County, MD Water - 1/2 Campden Tablet for all brewing water
4 grams gypsum to mash water
4 grams CaCl to mash water

Tasting Notes

This porter appears almost black in the nonick pint glass I am drinking from and has a tan head of foam, with great lacing.  Smells of sweet malt, slight roast and earthy hops dominate the aroma.  The beer has medium body and medium to high carbonation.  The flavor is dominated by english hop character and a clean malt backbone with just enough dark malt character to produce a crisp bitter finish.  This beer is easy drinking and could definitely be consumed throughout the day at your printing press job.

I really enjoy drinking this beer.  The inner beer nerd can continually sip and pick out subtle nuisances, but the regular beer drinker will be able to toss them back as each sip finishes with a dryness, not expected from the final gravity.  The bitterness of the hops and the dark malts keep this beer in check.  I plan on trying to keep a variation of this in the pipeline in the future.  Its a versatile style which can showcase english, or american hops in the finish.  Be on the lookout for future additions.

35th Annual NHC 2013 - Brewing up a Revolution

Wow...Sold out in 20 hours with nearly twice as many tickets available!  I am glad I was able to secure my tickets for myself and my friend.  This will be my first year attending the National Homebrewers Conference.  You can check out the full info here.

Brewery News

I finally kicked my 5lb CO2 tank..lasted me abut 15 months! Got it refilled and my porter is carbing up.  Should have a review of that soon.  IPA in the fermentation chamber soon to be dry-hopped this weekend.

Brewing Water

DISCLAIMER: I am not a chemist, and most of what I have gathered may have been interpreted incorrectly.  So don't blame me if your beer tastes worse after using any info I provide in this post.

Generally, water can be ignored until you have somewhat mastered the other hot and especially the cold-side of brewing.  Adjusting your water can turn a good beer, into a great beer.  This is geared to All Grain brewing, generally extract brewers will not need to worry too much about water.

Water Source

The first thing a brewer needs to figure out is where their water is coming from.  Talk to the person who pays your water bill and navigate to that water companies website.  A lot of water treatment companies will post a water analysis which details the low, median, and high ranges of different minerals in the water.  I live in Montgomery County, MD and my water company Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission (WSSC) posts yearly tap water analysis.  If you get your water from a well, or your water company does not provide you with the details (if its not online try to call), you may need to send a sample away for testing with a company like Ward Labs (W5).

Additional note: If your water company treats your water with chlorine, I recommend using campden tables to treat your water at 1 tablet per 20 gallons of water.

(My water originates from the Potomac River, which looks like this as it gets close to D.C.)

What to Look for:

I recommend you read John Palmer's Chapter 15 from How To Brew on Water for more information.  Below are the minerals and my water sources average values which I use to plan my water adjustments.
Calcium (Ca) - 38ppm
Magnesium (Mg) - 9ppm
Sodium (Na) - 21ppm
Chloride (Cl) - 41ppm
Sulfate (SO₄) - 40ppm
Hardness/Alkalinity - Alkalinity (CaCO₃) 82ppm

Why Care About It?

Having the correct chemical makeup in your water will determine your mash pH.  Having an ideal mash pH will help insure full conversion in your mash.  Additionally, higher/lower levels of the different minerals will have an impact on the flavor of your beer, especially if you are trying to replicate a classic style.  I wouldn't be able to make a light lager, which needs to be low in minerals, with my water without the bitterness coming out to harsh.

How to Make Adjustments

Since, I don't have a firm chemical grasp on how all these minerals work with each other in the mash, I choose to use the EZ Brew Water Caclulator.  The Calculator takes my mineral concentrations above and allows me to input other salt additions to raise/lower my mash pH while also telling me my total mineral concentrations for my water.  To lower the mash pH you use Gypsum - CaSO₄, Calcium Chloride - CaCL₂, Epsom Salt - MgSO₄, or lactic acid in the form of acidulated malt, or liquid lactic acid.  To raise the mash pH you can use Slaked Lime - Ca(OH)₂, Baking Soda - NaHCO₃, or Chalk - CaCO₃ (note chalk will not dissolve in water and will need to be added to the mash)

Most of the time, with my water, I am trying to lower the pH to get it into the desired range based on the EZ Brew Water Calculator.  If I am brewing a pale ale or IPA I am going to use some gypsum to bring down the pH and accentuate the bitterness in the beers.  If I am brewing something lighter, like a blonde I may use some Calcuim Chloride.  If I think too much of a salt addition is necessary, I will then turn to acid malt to get me where I need to be.  I plan to brew a Czech Pilsner here soon, and I think I am going to need to cut my tap water with some RO water to get it soft enough.

So for any water guru's out there...let me know if I am doing something glaringly wrong with my water adjustments in my recipes!  I am currently just going by taste and taking good notes, and unfortunately I do not have any pH testing equipment, so I am really trusting that spreadhseet - for better or worse.

For More Understanding...

John Palmer's How to Brew - Chapter 15 - explains each mineral, their recommend ranges
AJ DeLange - Local (DC Area) brewing water legend has a ton of good info hosted here
Brewing Networks Brewstrong - Water Shows - about 5 hours of audio on the subject (may contain some language)
Water - New book by Brewer's Publications coming out soon
The Mad Fermentationist's Blog Post on Water - Does a good job regarding recommend ppm mineral values
Brukaiser - Especially some of his documents like pH Targets

Bad Bear - Northern English Style Brown Ale

The Bad Bear brown ale is a beer I brewed back in October, but just now am getting around to documenting the beer.  As you can see, I am enjoying creating these labels for the beers.  Hopefully, I don't offend anyone, but I figure if you are old enough to drink beer you are old enough to handle some humor in the labels.

Bad Bear - English Brown Ale

Brewed On: October 6, 2012
Kegged On: October 27, 2012
Style: 11C - Northern English Brown
Batch Size: 6 gallons
Efficiency: 75%
OG: 1.049
FG: 1.012
IBU: 27 calculated (Rager) 
ABV: 4.9%
Yeast: Safale S-04 English Ale Yeast (Re-hydrated) Fermented at 64°

Grist Mashed at 150.5 for an hour

80% - Maris Otter (Muntons) - 9 lb
4%  - Biscuit (Dingemans)- 8 oz
4%  - Special Roast (Briess) - 8 oz
4%  - Crystal 40L (Briess) - 8 oz
4%  - Victory (Briess) - 8 oz
2%  - Chocolate (Briess 350L) - 4 oz


Hop Additions 
1.35 oz - Willamette 4.8% AAU - 60 minutes - 25 IBUs
0.5 oz   - Willamette 4.8% AAU - 10 minutes - 2 IBUs

Water Adjustments
Montgomery County, MD Water - 1/2 Campden Tablet for all brewing water
4 grams gypsum to mash water
4 grams CaCl to mash water

(Bad Bear Brown Ale - in New Pint Glass from Xmas)

Tasting Notes: The beer pours an auburn red to brown color which is fairly clear, but not crystal.  The beer has a sweet and grainy malt aroma, but also has a dominate aroma of musty-fruity esters from the English yeast.  The beer is very balanced, but leans slightly more towards the malty side than bitter and the overall taste profile is somewhat muddled from the tangy/tart yeast character.  The beer has a creamy mouthfeel and finishes with just enough dryness to invite you back for another sip.

Overall, I will definitely be making some changes the next time I make this beer.  I have read in the online forums some dislike for the Safale S-04 dry yeast, and I unfortunately agree. This yeast was said to be very funky when fermented in the upper 60s and even result in a tangy very estery beer in the lower 60s.  I find this to be the case as the ester character really overshadows any of the discerning malt tastes I was hoping to achieve with this beer.  I fermented this beer at 63° and after initial fermentation (4 days) allowed it to creep up to 66° or so.  I have followed a similar fermentation regimen with WLP002 (English strain of liquid yeast) in my English Mild where I felt the malt character really shined.  After my own personal experience and of the online community, I think I will be leaving the S-04 dry yeast out of my yeast library in the future.  So next time - different yeast, same grain bill.